The wine is never filtered and only the natural yeast from the island air is used. All this is the traditional ‘old way’ recorded and transcribed by the vineyard owner in the late 80's from the memory of the old folk on the island.
Nikola also shows us their traditional amphitheatre - if you stand in the center and speak your voice booms back at you with bass and resonance - startling.
Inside she shows us some old Ikarian stuff - clothes, amphoras, clay beehives and the smoking pots to quell them.
And then we taste. Their wines are spectacular - unusual, strange and the weirdest colours! For me they redefine what constitutes good wine - complex, tasty but entirely different. They have been regularly winning euro-awards so it’s not just the novelty value. Their massively labour intensive process yields fantastic results. Even simple ideas like dry or sweet are hard to pinpoint with some of their wines - an old red (more like amber in colour) is almost sweet to start but ends full of dry leather and tannins.
Despite the high costs and complex carry problem we buy three bottles and are given a fourth and some honey and originum (all carry the mineral taste). Then home to Thea’s satisfied. We stay in and eat early after a long day.
